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Kyoto Shogi
Kyoto Shogi (京都将棋 Kyōto Shōgi "Kyoto Chess") is a modern variant of Shogi (Japanese Chess). It was invented by Tamiya Katsuya c. 1976. In 2006, a tournament was held in Munich, Germany. Kyoto Shogi is played like Standard Shogi, but with a reduced number of pieces on a 5×5 board. However, the pieces alternately promote and depromote with every move, and the promotion values are entirely different from Standard Shogi. Rules of the Game Game Equipment Two players play on a board ruled into a grid of 5 ranks (rows) by 5 files (columns). The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color. Each player has a set of 5 wedge-shaped pieces, of slightly different sizes. From largest to smallest (most to least powerful) they are: * 1 King * 1 Gold General * 1 Silver General * 1 Tokin * 1 Pawn The names of the pieces combine their promoted and unpromoted values, and are puns in Japanese for words with the same pronunciations but different kanji. For example, the Lance/Tokin is homonymous with the name of the city 京都 Kyoto, and provides the name of the game. Setup | style="width:34px" | || valign="top" | |} Each side places his pieces in the positions shown below, pointing toward the opponent. * In the rank nearest the player: ** The King (K) is placed in the center file. ** The Gold General (G) is placed in the adjacent files to the right of the King. ** The Silver General (S) is placed in the adjacent files to the left of the King. ** The Tokin (T) is placed in the left corner. ** The Pawn (P) is placed in the right corner. That is, the first rank is |T|S|K|G|P|. Promotion There is no promotion zone in Kyoto Shogi. Every time a piece makes a move it alternately promotes and reverts to its unpromoted state. Promotion is effected by turning the piece over after it moves, revealing the name of its promoted rank; depromotion is effected by turning the piece back. The promotion rules and values are reminiscent of Microshogi and entirely different from Standard Shogi: * A King cannot promote: K''' * A Tokin (T) promotes to a Lance and vice versa: '''T ↔ L''' * A Silver General promotes to a Bishop and vice versa: '''S ↔ B''' * A Gold General promotes to a Knight and vice versa: '''G ↔ N''' * A Pawn promotes to a Rook and vice versa: '''P ↔ R Movement and Capture A piece is allowed to move, capture or be dropped in a manner that will prevent it from moving on a subsequent turn, which is illegal in Standard Shogi. For example, a Rook can move onto the furthest rank, becoming a pawn and unable to move further. Such pieces may be captured as any other. Drops A captured piece may be dropped with either side facing up. See also * Shogi variant * Whale Shogi * Minishogi * Judkins Shogi * Microshogi * Cannon Shogi * Yari Shogi Copyright Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Kyoto Shogi" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Shogi, used under the GNU Free Documentation License. Category: Shogi